What comes to mind when you think of the most sun-loving animal in the world?
Chengdu people? Well, that's right, I'm just lying in the sun writing this article now, my feet up to the sky, indescribably comfortable.
However, Chengdu people are really not the most likely sunbathing animals in the world, the most favorite animals on this planet may be Godzilla, start to dry in the morning, before going to the sea, climb ashore from the bottom of the sea to dry, do not bask in the sun that is their fate, Chengdu people sunshine solar so fight?
Some people say, stop, stop, where is Godzilla, the movie has seen too much?
Well, the Godzilla mentioned here is actually the prototype of Godzilla in the movie - the Galapagos iguana, you directly enlarge it dozens of times, but is it Not Godzilla?
You may have also noticed that any hyena in the name of this planet seems to be a vicious ugly animal, such as a hyena, and no one will like them. The Galapagos iguana is also ugly and looks fierce, otherwise how could it have been made into a Godzilla prototype? But galapagos iguanas are really gentle because they are completely vegetarian animals, and only occasionally do they occasionally beat their teeth and eat insects or carrion.
There are actually two kinds of Galapagos iguanas, the land iguana and the sea iguana, both evolved from the same ancestor, and can still mate with each other today, giving birth to surviving offspring, but their offspring are not fertile and can no longer be mom and dad. A little sorry isn't it? Ancestors and patriarchs on the top, at first it was just one left on land, one went to the ocean, gradually drifted away and no longer came and went, now by humans to rob the habitat, the "lizard" mouth is less and less, it is difficult to find objects, back to want to re-engage, but put on this file, reproductive isolation is really harmful, no, it is harmful to the lizard.
Straddling the Earth's equator, the Galapagos Islands are a very strange place, and you can tell from the fact that iguanas like to bask in the sun. Near the equator is the hottest place on earth, and most species are to avoid sun exposure, such as humans there, who have been sunburned into black races or low black races in Southeast Asia for tens of thousands of years.
Why do Galapagos iguanas like to bask in the sun?
Because it's cold here. You may think that I am challenging the general understanding of human beings again, how can it be very cold near the equator, nonsense?
In fact, the Galapagos Islands are very cold, otherwise how could it be a strange place, with so many strange species? There's even an animal that should have appeared in Antarctica— penguins, the only one on Earth to live in the Northern Hemisphere, though they've only just crossed the equatorial line.
The reason why the Galapagos is cold is because although it is located near the equator, the Peruvian cold current from the Antarctic flows westward along the equator after turning in Ecuador, and slowly disappears just after passing through the archipelago, so it is the tail end of the cold water flow in Antarctica, so that the Galapagos maintains a cool and arid climate all year round, and the average annual temperature of the sea is only 17 to 22 degrees Celsius, and the temperature is only 22 to 25 degrees Celsius.
The most suitable growth temperature for iguanas is 26 to 35 degrees Celsius, so it is a huge challenge for Galapagos iguanas, but what can be done? If you are born here, you can only adapt. How do you adapt to it? Of course, it is basking in the sun, iguanas are cold-blooded animals, need to improve body temperature and maintain vitality by basking in the sun, otherwise they will freeze hard and confused, and they will not know if they are eaten by predators.
For the sea iguana, the cold is a bigger challenge, they need to go to the bottom of the water to eat algae for a living, the sea temperature is so low, the thought of going into the water is full of chaff sieving, what to do?
bask! So when you get to Galapagos Island, the first thing you see is a black reef with black mini-Godzillas basking in groups. After a few hours of sunbathing, the body temperature rises to almost 40 degrees, then numb the guts, jump into the water, go to the bottom of the water to fish a few mouths, and get up after about 20 minutes. At this time, the body temperature dropped almost again, and I quickly basked on the reef again to restore my body temperature.
And at night, the temperature is lower, what to do? At this time, the sea iguanas will be like chickens or penguins, densely packed together, relying on body temperature to survive the long cold nights.
So you see, the iguana only eats vegetarian and does not kill, the personality is still gentle, and even cheap like a chicken huddled together for warmth, it is because it is ugly, humans will ugly it into a vicious and cruel Godzilla, is not a little too inhumane. For any kind of animal, the living environment in nature is extremely harsh, and it is never possible to have a comfortable environment like humans, especially toilets and toilets, life is really not easy.
Of course, the biggest threat to the Galapagos iguana is not the harsh natural environment, but the humans. When Darwin first came to the Galapagos in 1835, he found that the island of Santiago was full of caves of land iguanas, and there was no way to find a place to set up a tent. Now, the land iguanas on the island of Santiago have long been completely extinct, because the arrival of humans has also brought cats, dogs, mice and other exotic species, hunting iguanas or iguana eggs, while pigs and goats have eaten the plants they rely on and destroyed the water sources on which they depend.
Even more frightening is that soldiers who were previously stationed on Baltra Island have killed iguanas as entertainment, causing them to become extinct in 1954. Fortunately, in the early 1930s, a biologist, William Randolph Hess, discovered how a small island a few hundred meters away, North Seymour, did not have iguanas, and transferred some of it to the past, so that this population was spared and became the seed species that is reintroduced to Baltra and other islands after artificial breeding today.
Therefore, because of human activities, the earth is undergoing a species reshuffle, which will go into history and which will stay, it may already be obvious. Those who cannot become food pets are mostly not optimistic about the future.